Paper manufacture



Oct. 29, 1957 o. J. MILLS PAPER MANUFACTURE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 23, 1953 INVENTOI Q. if

Inlllll lrlll Nlll Oct. 29, 1957 o. J. MILLS 2,310,940

PAPER MANUFACTURE Filed April 23, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 &

IN VEN TOR.

Unite States Patent 6 PAPER MANUFACTURE Orrie J. Mills, Hudson Falls, N. Y.

Application April 23, 1953, Serial No. 350,621 1 Claim. (Cl. 19-155) This invention relates to improvements in paper manufacture.

The principal objects of this invention are directed to improvements in the method of papermanufacture which, in a general way, permit greater production with relatively less equipment and lower cost than has heretofore been possible according to the prior art.

There are increasing demands for increasing operating speeds in order to increase tonnage per inch of trim of paper machines. In attempts to obtain the increased tonnage, special equipment has been designed at great cost and as the furnish consists of one-half or one percent fiber with ninety-nine percent water, the increased tonnage increases the problem of handling and the cost of water.

According to the invention, machines of higher speed and narrower width than prior art machines are capable of production equal to and in many cases in excess of prior art machines.

As an example a machine producing newsprint with a basis weight of 32#, having a trim of 132" operating at 600 feet per minute, will'produce 50 tons of paper in '24 hours. A machine according to the invention having a trim of 66" and operating at 1200 feet per minute will produce the same tonnage in the same period of time, or a machine having a trim of 33", operating at 2400 feet per minute will produce 50 tons in a 24-hour period.

The speed of prior art machines is limited to a large extent by the enormous amount of Water used, the handling thereof and its elimination. That is, there is a limit to the speed at which a machine can be run to obtain satisfactory products.

According to the novel features of this invention, the Fourdrinier section of the prior art paper machine and its auxiliaries and pit are eliminated, the handling of very large quantities of water is obviated, less dryers are required, there is much less steam consumption for drying, there are no couch and wire marks in the paper, and there are other advantages as will appear hereinafter.

In ordinary paper manufacture, papermaking fibers are suspended in water and in order to produce paper of the desired characteristics there are many factors which must be considered, with the basis weight of the paper to be produced. Some of the factors are, character of fibers, speed of forming element, mesh of wire, length of forming element, shake for interlocking of fibers, drainage from paper web, suction boxes, amount of dilution, etc. The various factors must be adjusted by thepapermaker to their proper relationships but according to the novel features of this invention, there is no such multiplicity of factors requiring a proper relationship.

An important consideration with prior art papermaking is the large quantity of water required, as for example, where the consistency of stock going onto the Fourdrinier wire is one-half of one percent to, say, one percent of fiber with ninety-nine or so percent of water. The availability of the large quantity of suitable water is frequently a problem. The handling thereof, the drainage from the stock, and the drying of the web, consistently presents 2 problems while adequate equipment therefore is, space consuming and expensive.

All of the above objects, I accomplish by means of such structure and relative arrangements of parts thereof, as will fully appear by a perusal of the description below and by various specific features which will be hereinafter set forth.

To the above cited and other ends and with the foregoing and various other novel features and advantages and other objects of my invention as will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, my inventionv consists in certain novel features of construction and in the combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more particularly pointed out in the claim hereunto annexed and more fully described and referred to in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of apparatus to explain the novel features of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic sectional elevational view on the line 2-2 of Fig. I;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of apparatus to further explain the novel features of the invention; and

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic elevational view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Referring now to the drawings more in detail, the invention will be fully described.

A supply vat or stock chest 2 is shown in Fig. l for papermaking stock which according to the invention will have been prepared in a suitable manner for the paper to be produced. For purposes or description, the paper to be produced will be considered lightweight or tissue paper as distinguished from wrapping paper, heavy bond paper, or the like.

The stock will be prepared in much the ordinary manner so that it will provide a furnish for the basis weight paper to be produced. Said stock, however, instead of including a half to one percent fiber as is the common practice will be about percent of the proper fiber and about 25 percent only of water.

The stock is transported by a continuously rotating screw 4 through a conveyor tube. 6 onto an endless conveyor band 8 of a conveyor scale it The screw will be driven by a motor 7 or the like .at the proper speed for the practice of the invention.

The stock on the band 8 is delivered thereby to a compartment 12. A fan housing 14 connected to the compartment by a conduit 16 encloses a suction fan 18 operated by a motor 19. A delivery nozzle 20 depends from the housing and terminates in a relatively wide delivery outlet 22.

An endless felt band 34 has an upper run supported and driven by rolls 26, and is otherwise guided by rolls 28, all as shown. A suction box or suction roll 30 of suitable form is disposed below the band 24 at a point below the outlet 22.

A hollow cylinder 32 is rotatable adjacent the delivery end of the band. This cylinder is similar to that known as a Yankee dryer and is supplied with steam for drying purposes. Cooperating rotatable'and continuously driven press rolls 36 receive these between the band 34 and fiber thereon.

A tank 36' for water'hasan outlet conduit 38 to the compartment 12 and may have an air inlet such as 40 for the passage of air to the compartment 12. Rolls 41 represent the rolls of a calender stock of ordinary form.

Stock from chest 2 onto the weighing band '8 is delivered at such rate as to satisfy the weighing scale and may be accomplished by regulating the speed of screw 4.

The weighing scale will be of the type to continuously weigh the correct amount or volume of stock for the particular paper being formed, taking into consideration stock.

points. a b 7 There may'be suctiondevices below the bandG S and the basis weight of the paper being produced, the speed of band 34, etc. One, form of such device is that known as fFe dQWe hti n ac ur d by. M ick a Mfae Co. of Pa'ssaic, 'New'Jersey. Such'devices jopeijat continuously and the adjustability thereof makes itlpossible to continuously deliver'a'predetermined weighti of stock Obviously, the stock may be delivered to the band 34 "in such a manner as to form a' very thin or relatively thicker layer depending upon the operation of the weighing device and speed of the band 34 in order .to form' the paper web desired, but in all cases, the fibers deliveredto the band will be such as to produce the, basis weight desired.

In some cases it may be desired to add moisture tow the fibers. This maybe accomplished by opening a valve 39 in conduit 38 whereupon a fan 18 draws air from over the water in tank 36 so that moisture laden air is mixed with the stock so that the fiberstake on moisture. 'If desired, of course, the air or water maybe heated to facilit he stock not. assailants-est 7 In this way, a multiple ply web is produced. The stock from each nozzle may have such characteristics as may be desired. As an illustration, the endmost nozzles may deliver stock for what is known as linersand the intermediate nozzle may deliver filler stock.

100 and from said'rolls 'toi drying cylinders 192.

It will be observed that'stock havingjarelatively greater proportion of fiber than water is used to obviate the handling and elimination of water renders the use of a large amount of equipment unnecessary. 1

According to the prior art where the jstock is -prac tically all water, production is limited to the ability to tate moisture absorbtion. The suctiondevice 30 when in 7 operation functions to assist intermingling otthe. fibers and'to remove moisture from the stock as it isdelivered to the band. V

' It will be understood that web in the manner described.

' It will be noted that the fibers aredry relative to .ordinary pape'rmaking' procedure, therefore the removal of water ceases to be a problem and that therefore the speed of production is not limited by the handling of vast amountsof Water as formerly. The fiber suspended in air as it is. and delivered to the forming hand is properly intermingled and felted to form a .web of the desired characteristics; i '7 v i f According to the invention, a by the apparatus of Figs. 3 and 4.

plural ply web is formed Plural housings 55,

52, and 54 have depending nozzles 56, 58 and 6t termi-. 'nating in outlets 62, 64 and 66. An endless band, 68

receives fibers from the outlets.

Each housing is connected by connections such "as 74 to a compartment 76 having a suction fan .73 rotatable therein which is driven by a motor 79. i

supported and driven by rolls 69, and guided by rolls '74) Stock chests such as 80 deliver stock to a conveyor hav the various components will be operated in suitable timed relation for producing the i ing a screw 82 rotatable in a tube 84. The screw is op-J erated by'a motor 86 and the stock is dischargedonto an .endless band 88 of a weighing device 90. Weighed stock is delivered to the compartment 76. A water tank 92 is connected by a conduit -94 to the compartment 76 anda.

' valve 96 isdisposed in. said conduit. 'Thetank may have I an air inlet 93.

Apparatus such as shown in Fig. 4 and similar to that described in connection with-Figs. 1 and ;2 is duplicated so that stock will be delivered to apron 68 at spaced nozzles such asshown iuFig. 1.

handle and eliminate water not only in the web forming step but in the subsequent drying step. I V

According to this invention, with the relatively dry fiber it is conveyed by air to the forming element as distin-I. guished from water and the fibers are in such condition as to interfelt and intermingle so as to provide a web having the desired formation. Inasmuch as thestock is weighed for the basis weight of the web to be formed; the web'is uniform in all important respects. a Altogether, the method enablesa greatly increased production and more economically than has been possible heretofore and without an enormous amount of expensive equipment. 7 e V i The invention may be'e'mbodied in other. specific forms without departing from the essential characteristics there'- of. Hence, the present embodiments are therefore to be fall within the meaningand purview and range of-equiv alency of the appended claim are therefore iriten'ded'to be embraced therein. 7 V V I What it is desired to claim and secure by Letters of the United States is: a

' In the art'of paper making, the method of making a web consisting of the. steps; continuously weighing on a weighing scale separate quantities of fibers having a rela v tively low and uniform watercontent, continuously delivering'ata speed controlled by the desired basis weight of the'web being formed .as' indicated by the weighing scale the" separate weighed quantities of fibers by' way of an air suspension meansto a continuously. moving form web being formed, subjecting the delivered 'fibers on the forming band to a web forming element, and drying the web so formed.

' References Cited in the tile this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Patent Messiter Ian. 19,19l5

Greene'et .Mar. 8,1955, 

